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Thursday, February 2, 2017
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STATE
Gov. Abbott cuts Travis County funds By Lisa Dreher @lisa_dreher97
Gov. Greg Abbott is cutting $1.5 million in Travis County criminal justice grants after Sheriff Sally Hernandez enacted a new jail policy Wednesday related to federal immigration enforcement. Hernandez’s policy does not allow immigration agents to detain undocumented immigrants held in local jails without a warrant. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents make detainer requests to inves-
tigate jailed undocumented immigrants, and Hernandez said in a video last week these requests only ask, but do not require, local law enforcement to fulfill them. “We are in a legislative session — we are working on laws that will, one, ban sanctuary cities, remove from office any office holder who promotes sanctuary cities and impose criminal penalties as well as financial penalties,” Abbott told Fox News last week. The county has used $300,000 out of $1.8 million it was set to receive in state
funding for criminal justice grants, resulting in a $1.5 million loss for the county. In addition to the funding cuts, Abbott said last week he would seek a bill to remove elected officials who do not comply with federal immigration enforcement. Hernandez said she will comply with detainer requests without warrants from a judge only for undocumented immigrants who commit sexual assault, murder or human trafficking, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
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LEGACY
Professor Barbara Harlow dies at 68 By Kayla Meyertons @kemeyertons
Marshall Tidrick | Daily Texan Staff
Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at a press conference following his victory over Wendy Davis in 2014. Abbott is cutting $1.5 million in Travis County criminal justice grants following Sheriff Sally Hernandez’ new jail policy.
NATIONAL
UT experts say Trump’s ban lacks legality By Lisa Dreher
Dana Vaziri, one of UT’s Iranian international students, expresses his opinion and personal impact from the refugee and immigrant ban recently put in action by President Donald Trump.
@lisa_dreher97
President Donald Trump issued an executive order Friday barring refugees and immigrants from seven Middle Eastern countries from entering the U.S., and experts at UT say the travel ban will be legally challenged. “The breadth of the executive orders and the discriminatory nature of them are going to be legally challenging,” said Jeremi Suri, history and public affairs professor. “There are many legal problems with the way the orders were written around these issues.” According to CNN, Trump said refugees and immigrants from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen
Olivia Borg Daily Texan Staff
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CITY
On her last day on earth, Barbara Harlow removed her ventilation mask and held up a vodka tonic to a room of loved ones in the intensive care unit, celebrating a life well-lived. “She knew she was going to die once they had taken off the breathing tube,” said Neville Hoad, English associate professor and one of Harlow’s closest friends. “She wanted the last taste with her friends, and so we did. She lived on her own terms and wanted to die on her own terms.” Harlow, a UT English professor, scholar and human rights activist, died Jan. 28 after a short battle with terminal cancer. Harlow led campus protests in support of Palestine at UT and spoke vehemently against apartheid in South Africa, wars in the Middle East and American torture tactics, according to an obituary by history professor Toyin Falola. Harlow received a bachelor’s degree in French and philosophy from Simmons College in Boston in 1970. Harlow also pursued a master’s degree at the University of Chicago and received her Ph.D. on writer Marcel Proust at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1977. She has taught at the
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UNIVERSITY
Grad student promotes educational outreach Budget cuts may affect By Kayla Meyertons In 399 B.C., ancient Greek philosopher Socrates was condemned to death for “corrupting the youth” by asking philosophical questions around the city of Athens. In 2016, philosophy graduate student Briana Toole created philosophy outreach program Corrupt the Youth to do the same at an East Austin high school. Toole started CTY at Eastside Memorial High School to give students of lower socioeconomic backgrounds the chance to question societal conventions under the guidance of UT faculty and student volunteers. Toole said she thinks it is remarkable and important to get people to question why things are the way they are, just as Socrates did. “I think corrupting the youth is exactly what we should be doing,” Toole said. “We should encourage students, when they see an injustice, to rebel against it. I think for a long time, education has become so
centered on rote learning and teaching kids how to pass a test, and it has shifted away from this emphasis on critical thinking.” Volunteers from the University help run a 90-minute class every Tuesday and every other Friday for juniors who participate in Advancement Via Individual Determination, a college readiness program. Students are selected by teachers to participate in AVID. In the CTY class, Toole said students discuss current concepts in philosophy, such as gun control and the death penalty. Twenty-one UT graduate students, six professors and two undergraduate students are participating this semester in CYT, including philosophy graduate student Simone Gubler, who volunteered last year. “Philosophy is something anyone can have access to,” Gubler said. “You don’t need books or training to have philosophical questions, and the students that we met were people who had all of these philosophical questions — and all we were doing was validating
NEWS
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McDonald Observatory By Mikaela Cannizzo @mikaelac16
Courtesy of Briana Toole
UT graduate student Briana Toole created the Corrupt the Youth educational outreach program to inspire philosophical discussion at underprivileged high schools.
UT’s McDonald Observatory, which is home to one of the largest telescopes in the world, is at risk of losing a large portion of its funding. As an astronomy hub educating students and training future astronomers, the McDonald Observatory in West Texas has been a part of UT since 1932 and attracts about 90,000 visitors a year, said observatory director Taft Armandroff. However, the observatory could potentially be one of the several institutions connected with Texas public universities and colleges to lose a significant amount of funding if the Senate’s proposed budget is approved. “If there’s no (state) money, there’s going to be traumatically less activity,” Armandroff said. “We’d try to keep doing as much as we can, but obviously it would have serious impacts on the research and the education that happens in astronomy
those questions and trying to work with them to find clearer ways to state them and to work through them.” High school senior Bruce Zamora participated in the program last spring and has a full-ride scholarship to Hofstra University in New York this fall. “Philosophy helps you open up to anything new,” Zamora said. “You … realize once you take philosophy and once you start taking a slower approach to it, it’s (better) than just taking an opinion directly.” High school senior Malik
Hill said the class initially made him angry because everyone was debating different opinions. “The class and the subject itself make you think more and make you more open-minded as a person,” Hill said. “With the (issue of) gun control, at first, I was against it, but once we got started talking about it, I said I think they should have guns on campus to protect themselves and the people around them.” Philosophy graduate
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Women stifle Oklahoma State in victory. PAGE 6
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System chairman walks back comments on race. PAGE 3
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Texas finishes with 33rd ranked class after NSD. PAGE 6
Christian scientist speaks against climate change. PAGE 8
Orthodox Union press release spikes traffic on the word “anathema.” Read more online at
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for the University.” The Senate Finance Committee recently proposed a budget for 2018-19 that would decrease funding for “special items” by around $1 billion. The Legislative Budget Board defines these items as higher education initiatives “that are not supported through formula funding and support the special mission of the institution.” Committee chair Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, said the current budget is a starting point and has the potential to change as the legislative session unfolds. While the observatory receives funding from multiple outside sources, such as the National Science Foundation, Armandroff said the money received from the state is crucial to sustaining the entity. Last week during one of several finance committee meetings, Nelson appointed Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, to lead a work group with the mission of
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